fiscal cliff certainly the issue in the short term for a lot of big businesses and certainly for a lot of american taxpayers. however, long term is another story when it comes to the economy, and entitlements, the president referring to that as well. as we continue to get that feedback you can check it out foxnews.com, in the meantime we're going to move onto other news as well. >> reporter: and so let's begin with the violence that is appearing to really spiral out of control. secretary of state hillary clinton says she fears a desperate president bashar al-assad in syria may resort to using chemical weapons on his own people. in the meantime, the united nations is hint thag there wil hinting that there will be no asylum for bashar al-assad as the syrian dictator makes it clear that he will die before leaving the country under any circumstances. what is going on behind the scenes, for that we turn to corn powell following all the latest developments from our mideast bureau in jerusalem. connor. >> reporter: the international and internal pressure is mounting on bashar al-assad today.